Guides › Land-home packages
Buying a lot and a manufactured home separately can mean two sellers, two sets of paperwork and a site you have to manage yourself. A land-home package promises one deal instead. That can be simpler, and it can open the door to a regular mortgage, but someone else chose the lot and set the price of the bundle. Here is how these deals work, what often sits outside the price, and what to check before you sign.
A land-home package is the purchase of a manufactured or modular home together with the land it goes on, usually financed as one loan. It is a sales term with no standard legal definition, so each seller decides what it includes. The same words can describe a finished home you can move into or a new home plus a bare lot.
Ask which of these you are being offered, because each one leaves different work and risk with you.
| Move-in ready | The home is already installed on its lot and sold much like any other house. You can inspect the actual foundation, septic system, well and driveway, and confirm the permits were closed. |
|---|---|
| Seller's lot, new home | A dealer or developer supplies the lot and the home goes on it after you commit. What you are shown is a plan, so the contract has to say who does the site work, who pays if it costs more, and what happens if a permit is refused. |
| Your lot, their home | You already own the land or are buying it, and the dealer supplies the home and arranges the site work. Freddie Mac says land equity may count as an equity contribution, subject to conditions, so ask a lender how your lot would count. |
The biggest practical difference is often the kind of loan. A 2021 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report found that around 42% of manufactured-home purchase loans are chattel loans, secured by the home but not the land. These generally carry higher interest rates and fewer consumer protections than mortgages, and fewer than 4% of chattel originations were refinances. Tying the home to land you own is the usual route to a mortgage, but the home and site still have to qualify. The rules below are for manufactured homes. Freddie Mac says a modular home built to state or local code is generally treated as a site-built house.
Shop the loan separately from the home. On a closed-end loan secured by real property, the lender must send a Loan Estimate within three business days of your application (12 CFR 1026.19). The CFPB suggests asking several lenders for one so you can compare them. A loan secured only by the home generally falls outside that rule, so ask for written terms instead. If the dealer suggests a lender, ask whether the two are related, and get at least one quote from elsewhere.
"Turnkey" and "land ready" have no fixed meaning either. Ask for a written list showing who does and pays for each of these, and for the home and the land to be priced separately.
A bundled price does not mean the lot suits the home. The same questions apply as on any parcel. Does the zoning district allow this home? Does a covenant ban it? Will the soil take a septic system? Is any of it in a flood zone? Is the home built for the county's wind zone? Can you put a mobile home on your own land? covers each one in order, and what unrestricted land means covers a lot advertised with no restrictions.
Separate prices also let you compare the land with the public record. Check its acreage, last recorded sale and assessed value at the county, keeping in mind that an assessed value is a tax figure and not a market price.
Neither is always better. This is a rough comparison of where each one tends to leave the work and the risk, not a rule.
| Land-home package | Land and home separately | |
|---|---|---|
| The lot | The seller's lots, or a short list | Any lot you can get approved |
| The price | Often one figure, unless you ask for the split | You see the land, home and site costs one by one |
| Site work | The seller coordinates what the contract names | You hire and manage it, or pay someone to |
| The loan | Often one loan for everything | May take separate steps for the land and the home |
| Main risk | Paying for convenience you cannot see in the price | Buying a lot that cannot take the home |
Get the parcel number or address from the seller, then click the lot. The free panel gives you a first pass before you pay for anything.
| Acreage, Assessed Value, Last sale | What the county's parcel data publishes for the lot, where it publishes them. Compare the acreage with the contract. |
|---|---|
| Zoning district | The district code, where the county or city publishes a zoning layer, with an Ordinance link where LandCheck has one. "Unknown" does not mean the land is unzoned. |
| HOA | The association, where one of the few published association maps covers the parcel. "Unknown" or "None mapped" does not rule out covenants. |
| Deed records | A link to the county's official recorder search, for the deed, the plat and any declaration. |
| Septic suitability | The soil survey's rating for a drain field on that soil. It is a screen, not a permit. |
| Flood Zone | The FEMA flood zone at the point you clicked. |
| Road access | The distance to the nearest mapped public road, which is not the same as a legal right to use it. |
No map can tell you what the contract covers, whether a site permit was issued, or whether a lender will accept the home and foundation. Those come from the seller, the county and the lender, in writing.
Open the map with parcels and flood zones on →
What the parcel source shows in each county LandCheck covers: parcel maps by county.
General information, not legal, lending or financial advice. Loan programs and local rules change, and the figures above come from the sources linked. Confirm anything that matters with the lender, the county and a local real estate attorney.